1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a system that enables detection of nuclear material, and more particularly, to a system and its software and algorithms for use with widely distributed detectors to detect the same. Furthermore, the present disclosure describes a system, software, and implementations of algorithms for use with widely distributed low cost detectors to detect nuclear materials.
2. Related Art
The physics problem of locating hidden nuclear weapons possesses diverse physical components. Traditional approaches, such as using a “box” located near a “bomb” to detect the bomb, have serious limitations.
Historically, there is the proximity problem (PP). Radiation of various sorts, radiating from a fission device or dirty-bomb, gets dispersed quickly as the inverse of the distance squared. For a detector located at a distance, a small fraction of the initial protons are available for detection. The need to be close to the source has led engineers to station large-aperture detection apparatus at places where bombs might be ‘likely’ to occur—border crossings for example.
Second, there is the background problem (BP). Alpha and beta emission do not have large penetration distances into what might be termed the normal environment. But, while gamma radiation does not suffer from the same magnitudes of the proximity problem, the cosmic ray, geologic, and other background radiations make bomb signature difficult to distinguish from noise. Where gammas from a bomb can travel long distances from their source, separating which gammas are from a bomb and which are from background has proven to be an obstacle.